[JamesBlair]

They also don't give a damn about the old flag at all, which really is the problem. My parents had a flagpole and they never once flew the NZ flag on it. I think a little patriotism is deserved: NZ is a pretty good place to live. We don't need to go overboard but we're one of the few places on earth that struggles to work up enthusiasm in the first place so we're in no danger of being a little America.

Which makes the current selection of silver ferns and red peak the most tragic thing of all about this. It has just enough veneer of democracy to mislead people into making it a left/right war and the end result is that we'll have to wait another 20-30 years to do something that gets support from across the board, regardless of our two previous PMs being in favor of changing our defaced ensign.